Feb. 27, 2017
Hello everyone and I hope you all had an incredible week! This week was great! A couple cool experience that happened this week was that after dinner one night we were flipping around (because missionaries have to back up each other ) and while we were doing that there was this house that we have tried to visit a few time and have not had great success but this time there were cars out front and so I told elder Broshears that we should go see them! So we did and we met Melanie! She is great! When she opened up we got talking and I asked her if she knew why we were called Mormons? And that is probably my favorite questions to ask people because I can introduce everything in this question. So we talked about the book of mormon and the restoration and about Joseph Smith and it was so cool because she didn't know anything goes boutique Mormons and what we believe so we didn't have to break down any false teachings!  So as we talked and testified to her I could see in her eyes something changing.  It was like lights were turning on and things were clicking! It was so cool! She took a copy of the book of Mormon and said that site would read it that night and pray about it! Woot woot!

On Friday and part of Saturday we were on exchanges and I was able to learn a lot from the elder I was with! He is on point and so ready to work! It was a ton of fun and we were able to go to a stake dance, don't worry the bishop took us, we invited someone to be baptized and she accepted and we were able to help prepare someone for there baptism the next day! They had and goal the teach 40 lessons in one weekend so we both needed to teach 5 lessons on friday night and it was about 8:50 and we had only taught 4... so we kept trying to talk with people as we walked home (he taught me so much about how to start up a conversation with someone as you are walking by them and it is going to be so helpful to talk with more people! I just need to practice some more with it! But as we were walking home we found the person who was on date in their area that was walking past us! So we had an quick lesson with her and rechallenged him to read the book of mormon every day and to quit smoking. The Lord will provide as we do our best and he will put people in our path as we set righteous goals. I know He is watching out for us! I know that he loves us! I pray that we all my be able to come closer to Christ and be able to live in a way where we can always feel of the spirit and be ready to learn! I love you all so MUCH! 

Elder Michael Peters 

Feb. 14, 2017

Monday we got to go to the dunes with an investigator of ours who is on date!  His name is Dan! He took us to this little spot that was a ton of fun to drive his RC trucks at! He had this big monster truck, like legit monster truck with the back wheels that turn too, he also had one that he built! It was a 3 wheeler that looked like the one in his house! And then this little truck that actually did really well out there! We some how got the motor lose on that one and then while he was driving his 3 wheeler RC, he bent the frame some how! But it looked so epic! It was fast too! But his monster truck was tough and the beating like a champ! 
So I have to say how incredible the ward is here! One of the moms saw that we didn't have dinner for Monday and so they brought us dinner! But not just for Monday but also for Tuesday! And not just a little food, a lot of food! So we have good food for probably one more day! I am so thankful for them! 
As the night went on, we didn't have much success.. but after a little bit, I was sick of sitting around so I started searching for some person to visit! I found this one person and we were able to set up an appointment to come see her again! And before we were leaving she asked about the young women program because her sister who is a member has a daughter who used to go to mutual but hadn't for a while because she didn't know when and where it was. And so we went over to the dales house and the mom was so happy to see us and invited us in and asked if we could teach them for family night! Wednesday it rained so hard all day long! It has been crazy here with all this rain! It had really been raining since I got here! While we were working at the foods bank today, the main lady there asked me to Build a cart for them. So I did!I was so excited to help them and to be able to build something. And this little kids helped me to because his mom was shopping and he was a good helper! He would hand we a screw and play with the wheels and stuff! It was really cute! But after i thought I was done i tired to stand it up and just like every man I guess I had failed to look at the instructions and had missed a step..... so I had to take it all apart and do it again. But it wasn't easy to put those screw in and I put them in good so it was hard to twist them back out! I have to battle scares to prove it! So that was fun! Haha not! But after we went and saw brother Terrebrood and he open up to us a lot and pretty much asked us to help him spiritually! He has people helping him physically and mentally but he needs some spiritual help. He is in a lot of pain and is struggling with of things.  So I'm looking forward to teaching him because we relate a bit and I felt I have some experiences like him that can help him come back! It won't be a typical missionary lesson but it will have a lot of the same things, just taught in a different way! I love to help people and to be able to help them feel loved! I was to help as many people as I can while I'm here! Thursday We had dinner with our recent convert who's name is Rick. Rick is a retired vet that got pretty injured from his service. He is so much fun and always has a good story to tell me. So as I hope you know, Thurday was national pizza day and so Rick got us some pizza! One of the pizza he got was called a Chicago style pizza I believe. Which is like a pizza pie. It is a pizza in a pizza! It was so epic and I got so stinking full from it! But it was so good! As I was eating and he was cooking these pizzas in his toaster oven, he loves in a trailer and I guess he ran out of Gas for his oven or something like that so we just had to cook like one quarter of the pizza at a time, and while he cooked then he would tell me stories and teach me self defense! He taught me how to counter a punch marine style! Which I probably will never use or be able to use because it requires you to be able to read the person so you know when they are going to punch and then be able to catch their punch and use it against them. But he also told me about how he can to know God is real and that he love him personally and also how he loves us! It was a super incredible story and one that brought tears to how face and almost mine. We had ZTM on Friday and I learned a lot of good stuff! Since we are in the coast and the zone is so spread out, we had to drive to north bend/ coos bay to meet. Fun fact, our zone is the biggest zone in the whole mission but the only time we see each other is at our zone meetings! So I finally got to meet everyone and we have a cool zone! In one portion of the conference, I was asked to share how i gained a testimony of something. They asked me a couple days in advance to do this so I thought about it a lot and I felt like it would be OK for me to share my experience of coming back and how I decided to do that. It was a very spiritual moment for me and I feel like I was able to really testify of the power of prayer and God's love for us! Which was perfect because that was what we were talking about! After the meeting ended we did a zone power hour which means all the missionaries from the zone go and help find people in one, in our case two,  areas and help those areas find more people to teach. I got to go with elder Watson and he is really good and talking with people about the gospel and teaching them on the door. I'm still working on that and so it was so helpful for me to see it in action. I want to be better at teaching people the gospel and not always taking the first no! 
We met with Daniel and taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and  i keep being blown away with how open and ready to learn he is! He doesn't have a ton of gospel knowledge and doesn't really know what happened in the bible so we have to explain those parts carefully. But like we teach him this stuff and he is just like OK, that makes sense! It makes it hard sometimes because I like to base what I teach off question they have but he doesn't have many questions. So I have to try and follow how it goes in Pmg but then I feel like I'm just reciting things to him and I want it to be more from my heart. I just don't know all the point yet and I don't want to mess up and not teach him something or teach him something he doesn't need to know yet. But it will all come as I study more and even more as I keep teaching.So crazy story,  our dinner forgot that they were going to feed us on Tuesday so when we showed up they were scrambling to get some food ready for us and then they had to run out the door to because they had to go to this basketball game so they left us with there 16 year old son that had got in trouble so he couldn't go to the game. But also there youngest son, Micah, who is crazy, and acts like the dog, got to stay there too. But this kid was crazy! He was all over us and he just insane! I don't even know how to describe how crazy he is! 

This week I have had a testimony builder week. I was struggling to feel peace and to get my comp to work with me and feeling depressed and completely spent by 9 every night and over stimulated. I tried to feel the spirit each day and to recognize that I was loved and that God was blessing me every day in many ways. I looked and I looked by I had a hard time seeing. Now I am not telling you this because I want you to feel sorry for me or try and comfort me.  I tell you this because of what I learned Sunday and Monday about myself. Sunday in elders quorum we were reading president Hinckley's teaching in chapter 3 and if you haven't read it in suggest you do! It is the best pump up talk I have read, or maybe the spirit was telling at me while we were talking about it but it all struck me and was very impact full to me! He talks about making every day the best day possible and how while he was on his Mission he would look at his comp and say " today is good!" Or something like that.  And then yesterday in interviews with President Russell I was expressing that I was struggling and that I was having a hard time feeling the spirit I thought. I am not exactly sure what he said but he helped me recognize that I am still feeling the spirit and that I am an incredible missionary. He told me that the elder Peters that he sent home last summer was not the one that came back! He told me that he trust me so much and it's very thankful for me! I am not sure if it was that fact that I was able to recognize that I was still feeling the spirit or the fact that he helped me feel loved! I think back to when I asked mom why I felt like I want feeling the spirit and how she said that sometimes we get so used to feeling something that we forget that we are feeling it but it is always there! HE is always there! No matter what, HE is there! Oh my goodness this gospel is amazing! So if any of you feel down or when you feel down remember to find ways to show people love and that your attitude can change ANYTHING!  Our brain is such a powerful thing! If we can learn to master it,  we can learn to push ourselves high then we have ever thought possible,  do things that we never imagined and possible my favorite, we will be able to run Satan out of our mind! When we have control and we rely fully on the Lord, we are unstoppable!  I love you guys and I hope that everything is going great for you! Because things are pretty epic here! 
I love you all so much!
Elder Michael Peters 

 Driving over the bridge into coos bay

This is our district on our way to zone conference

 pictures of the lady we baptized. Jan Turner 

 Hey funny story for you! Well this week we had a baptism and the person we baptized is pretty old and she has a hard time walking and balancing so it was tricky for her to get in the font! And the to add to all that her brother in law baptized her. He has a super hard time hearing and he has a strong opinion! So we got them both in the font and he tried to start and you know how you usually have the person being baptized hold onto the baptizer? Well he didn't do it that way, I don't even know how do explain how he was doing it. He stood so that he was  perpendicular in the font so like if she when to far she would not her head! And then he very strongly felt that the baptism prayer was wrong and he kept not holding his hand to the square. So now imagine all that and having to try and correct this guy while he is baptizing. But you can't just whisper it to him. You have to almost yell at him! And then to add on that, the women doesn't like water, at all! So she had a really hard time going under and her  knees are bad so syst the 3rd time she finally made it!  But that's attest like 5 minutes of trying to correct this guy...... boy I was glad the bishop was to so I could fall back on him!

 This is the zone! We are so far apart that we have to Skype to talk with each other!

Feb. 6, 2017
Tuesday!
so today was a great day! I got up at 6:15, or more like I was forced awake from elder Broshears alarm going off and him not waking up at all. So I decided to get up and get started with my day! I was able to do my super epic work out program that some incredible personally made just for me! And that hurt so good! And I made myself a smoothie as well, it wasn't my best one but I have to learn how to make small smoothies because I'm used to making some for mom! So it will take me a couple tries to get this right  Then we went and did service at a senior center that does meals on wheels. So pretty much we get to ride along with someone who drives us to the houses and then I would put what the person asked for in a basket and then elder Broshears would run it to the door.  It was really cool to see more of the town and some of the more outset houses in the middle of no where! Like really, middle of the forest! There was this little pull off on the road and you took this little dirt road through all these bushes and over this old wood bridge and then poof! There's this house! We were able to teach a couple people and this one guy we talked with was telling me about what the difference was between us, Baptists and catholics. So I asked him to explain what Baptist believe and he said "well it matters what Baptist you're talking about? If you're talking about southern Baptist or other Baptists types because they're all different!" Then he said that a ton of religions don't have a standard belief,  except the Mormons,  they all believe the same stuff! And I really just wanted to say,  "duh! One Lord, one faith, one baptism!" But that didn't happen!  Then we had a few minutes before dinner so we went tracking a little and we found Evelyn! She opened right up to us and was really into what we are sharing!  She ever asked if she could attend our Sunday services! She seems pretty solid! She asked us why there are so many different religions and if any have truth. So I explained how many of them have tried to teach Christ's gospel but they all were missing something. His power and authority and direction! It seemed to go well!  Then we went to dinner at the most incredible house ever!  I took a lot of pictures because it was so cool! The members name is brother Julian and he is a member but his wife isn't. But he is so incredible! He loves to talk to me! He showed me his library and his artifacts that he dug up and his hummingbirds and his view and all this golden retrievers, 4 of them,  and told me so many stories and we talked about life after death and had a really great time!  After we stopped by this famous light house! 
So today is Wednesday and it was a good day! It started off a little bumpy though. Like waking up and being tired and not wanting to get up but choosing that I wanted to get up and work out because I know it makes me feel better and makes my day better. Also I just felt annoyed with elder Broshears but I didn't want to feel that way so I decided to  change how I felt and so I started asking him about his life and trying to get to know him better. And this helped a ton! I feel like we really are just trying to still figure each other out, so that makes things a bit harder.  But as the day went on things got a lot better! So we do a lot of service here which i love so much because I met new people everyday! So today we did service at this food bank that is pretty cool! I could go into a lot of detail of what they do but just know that they don't have a limit on what people can take and how often. They tell the people to take what they NEED or what they can USE but they don't monitor what they take. And they are aloud to come 12 times in a year and they would like then to just come once a month but the offer to people that they can come as often as they need. The whole idea is that if someone losses there job for like 4 months they need to be able to be fed for those 4 months. This program helps them that way and helps them be fed in there time of need. Any way! I got the whole grand tour from the main lady and she is very nice and she explained how it all worked. And then I got to walk around pretty much this garage with shelves and fridges in it and help people get there foods! 
Then i met Carolee and Sherman! Carolee is a younger older lady that is going through a rough time right now and Sherman is here crazy Australian shepherd! He is famous around here missionary wize because of how crazy he is! It was pretty hard to really teach her anything with all the dogs but it was good for us to be there and good for her! 
Jan is a old lady how we will be baptizing next week!!!! She is a lot of fun and we had a good talk! Old people are so great and so inspiring and help me look at my life and see all three good! We were talking about how lds parents are raising there kids to see when someone needs help and acting on it! And I thought of all the times where mom had asked me or nudged me to help someone in need and how she was teaching me to be a better man!  I am very thankful for the manners and way of life I have been taught and brought up in!
Chelsea and Richy and also on date and they are a young couple! Like he is 23! That is stinking young for around here! And we sat down with them and read 1 nephi 1 and they don't really understand the language of it. And I was again thankful that I was "born of goodly parents" and taught from the book of Mormon so I was able to answer there questions and help them that way! 
Dinner and finding Jeanette! So elder Broshears asked me where I wanted to eat and pizza sounded good and there is only one place to get pizza here and that is at bedrocks! And so we went there and we were the only ones for a while and we sat and talked and even watched a basketball game  but after we sat there for a while some one came and sat behind us and so I asked her if this one team had a chance to win it and then everything changed!  She told me how she was a member and had gone through the temple and how her whole family is members but she's not attending church for reasons that are personal. I felt really bad and I kept talking with hey and found more out about her life. It was a super neat experience for me because I very easily could not have said anything but I opened my mouth and I was able to find someone in need and that has been forgot! 

Thursday While I was getting ready this morning I was thinking about how much I have changed since I was out here last. I thought about it and the only answer to how I am different is cognitive and  also by Heavenly Father's help! Think about it! Until cognitive I was broken and frail and having a hard time with everything! Now I'm teaching people, working out, learning and growing, and I'm becoming what I have dreamed of becoming! A disciple of Jesus Christ and having no limitations on me! I can speak comes to my mind through the spirit and I don't have to try and spit it out! I am a changed young man!

So today it rained so intake incredibly much! And not just any rain, it was coastal rain and it was so cold! It was raining sheets of rain and sometimes it was raining sideways! So that made today fun!
We had district meeting today and it went well! Haha we had the AP'S came to our meeting and they we a lot of fun to have there because our district is just 4 elders.... but it was nice to have more people there. One thought I had was while we were reading in John where Christ asks Peter of if he loved him. You will probably have to read John 21 to makes this all make sense. But how when Christ died and the apostles was Peter what they do now and he said that he was going to go fish. I applied that to missionaries going home and how if we don't apply what we learn here to our life at home. We can't just leave everything we learn here in Oregon, we need to apply it to our lives
We found this less advice family, the T family, and they are cool! The husband had been going through a lot and he is having a really hard time with chronic pain that he got from his surgery.  So earlier this week we stopped by and talked with him for a while and he told us about some stuff we is going through and then invited us back on Friday to talk with all of his family. After we talked for a while and then I asked if we could share a quick message and I scrambled to think of something to share but then I remembered that sharing the gospel is not about sharing some wrote script. It is about sharing what I know and things from my heart! So I thought of a scripture that I ran across in my studies this week. It is John 15:9-17. In these verses Christ is telling us that he would lay down his life for His friends and we are his friends. When I read that I was taken back for the love the Christ has for us. And then I thought about how Christ wants us to be His friends, not a servant that doesn't know what's going on. He wants us to be close to Him and come to him as a friend or brother! When I shared this brother Terrebrood looked at me and said "thank you! That is exactly what I needed to hear today. I have been having a hard week and this was very helpful to me and remembering how much Christ loves me!" Oh man that made me so happy! The fact that I was able to be a tool for the spirit to speak to this man's heart and he was able to feel something and hopefully act upon it!
Because Reedsport is a small town, the ward had a ward bowling night once a month! A lot of members come to it and it was fun to meet them! There was one member that was actually was younger and he is good at bowling and he was watching me bowl and said that I bowl a lot like he did. I would switch between curving the ball and then bowling straight. So he started telling me about how if I will do the same thing every time I will be more consistent and be able to hit more pins that way! It actually worked a bit better!

love you all!  have a great day!

Elder Peters